Samurai: An ancient warrior code of strength, honor, and loyalty. ***
Samurai Teaching: Having the STRENGTH to passionately believe in every student; the HONOR to teach them in the way they best learn; and the LOYALTY to never give up on any of them. ***
Sensational Living: How sensationally we do this for them now determines how well they will be able to sensationally do this for themselves and for others as adults.

*Inspired after receiving an email recently from a parent of a former student (It is not the student pictured below. This was Joadeliz's gift to me this year that she spent her own money on; money she has very little of. It was truly a gift from her heart).

"Dear Mr. Stuart,

________ has mentioned you several times in the past few months. I as her mom am reaching out to you in hopes that you can send her your famous words of encouragement.

She has been diagnosed with the early onset of ______

She has several doctors appointments in the upcoming weeks. She feels down about school, (___A's, ___B's), she needs an uplifting message and trust me I know you're the one that can deliver it and she would openly receive it.

Once again, I deeply appreciate it, if you can do that with your busy schedule."

I am a very unassuming person, which means I don't have an ego thinking I'm great, or worried about others seeing me as great or being better than anybody. I simply see the best in others and in the world and often have no idea of any impact I'm having on others.

Just like any teacher, I do what I do because I am what I am and because it feels real and it feels true.

While moving recently I found a cross a student gave me ten years ago who contacts me now when she feels like cutting herself.

I have worn that cross around my neck every day since finding it.

I also found a letter from another student who told me he had gone through a period of wanting to kill himself, but each time he tried he heard my voice telling him and his classmates to Dream Big, Do Big, and never give up until they Became Big, and if any of them ever did give up they could always come back to me for hope and passion and the strength to fight again because the world needed them and the gifts only they could develop and give to the world.

He is now an incredible poet.

More and more of us are feeling so stressed out by stressed out administrators stressed out by their bosses over-stressing their jobs are at stake by the new protocol that we all forget why we do what we do and don't want to do it anymore.

And more and more of use are dropping out of teaching forever, wondering where we went wrong in our lives.

I came within one day from quitting teaching this year. I was still broken-hearted from a relationship that had ended months earlier, having lost my best friend and wondering where everything had gone wrong.

And now I was teaching at a new school with even tougher requirements because it was a failing school. I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel confident. And I felt so stressed out in meetings that all I heard in my head was, "You can't do this anymore."

And I wondered what a grown man was doing teaching a bunch of kids who didn't do their homework, didn't behave, didn't care.

I felt like a loser wondering again where I had gone wrong.

Then I reached down, deep down, into the only thing I had. The only thing I was and the only thing I was ever good at. Love.

And I didn't quit.

I showed up one day at a time and gave all of me for just one more day at a time. I decided to live again and love again every day I could get myself out of bed again.

I say we don't drop out. Things are tough in teaching. They are overwhelming. They are hard.

And the love we have for our students has an effect we often have no idea just how big it is on them, how long it stays with them, and how long it keeps them alive because it has become a part of them.

*Inspired after receiving an email recently from a parent of a former student

"Dear Mr. Stuart,

________ has mentioned you several times in the past few months. I as her mom am reaching out to you in hopes that you can send her your famous words of encouragement. She has been diagnosed with the early onset of ______

She has several doctors appointments in the upcoming weeks. She feels down about school, (___A's, ___B's), she needs an uplifting message and trust me I know you're the one that can deliver it and she would openly receive it.

Once again, I deeply appreciate it, if you can do that with your busy schedule."

I am a very unassuming person, which means I don't have an ego thinking I'm great, or worried about others seeing me as great or better than anybody. I simply see the best in others and in the world and often have no idea of any impact I'm having on others.

Just like any teacher, I do what I do because I am what I am and because it feels real and true.

While moving I recently found a cross a student gave me ten years ago who contacts me now when she feels like cutting herself.

I have worn that cross around my neck every day since finding it.

I also found a letter from another student who told me he had gone through a period of wanting to kill himself, but each time he tried he heard my voice telling him and his classmates to dream big, do big, and never give up until they became big, and if any of them ever did give up they could always come back to me for hope and passion, because the world needed them and the gifts only they could develop and give to the world.

He is now an incredible poet.

More and more of us are feeling so stressed out by the new protocol by the stressed out administrators who stress us out that we forget why we do what we do and don't want to do it anymore.

And more and more of use are dropping out of teaching forever, wondering where we went wrong in our lives.

I came within one day from quitting teaching this year. I was still broken-hearted from a relationship that had ended months earlier, having lost my best friend and wondering where I had gone wrong.

And now I was teaching at a new school with even tougher requirements because it was a failing school. I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel confident. And I felt so stressed out in meetings that all I heard in my head was, "You can't do this anymore." And I wondered what a grown man was doing teaching a bunch of kids who didn't do their homework, didn't behave, didn't care. I felt like a loser wondering again where I had gone wrong.

Then I reached down, deep down, into the only thing I had. The only thing I was and the only thing I was ever good at. Love.

And I didn't quit.I showed up one day at a time and gave all of me for just one more day at a time. I decided to live again and love again one day at a time.

I say we don't drop out. Things are tough in teaching. They are overwhelming. They are hard.

*Inspired after receiving an email recently from a parent of a former student

"Dear Mr. Stuart,

________ has mentioned you several times in the past few months. I as her mom am reaching out to you in hopes that you can send her your famous words of encouragement.

She has been diagnosed with the early onset of ______

She has several doctors appointments in the upcoming weeks. She feels down about school, (___A's, ___B's), she needs an uplifting message and trust me I know you're the one that can deliver it and she would openly receive it.

Once again, I deeply appreciate it, if you can do that with your busy schedule."

I am a very unassuming person, which means I don't have an ego thinking I'm great, or worried about others seeing me as great or better than anybody. I simply see the best in others and in the world and often have no idea of any impact I'm having on others.

Just like any teacher, I do what I do because I am what I am and because it feels real and true.

While moving I recently found a cross a student gave me ten years ago who contacts me now when she feels like cutting herself.

I have worn that cross around my neck every day since finding it.

I also found a letter from another student who told me he had gone through a period of wanting to kill himself, but each time he tried he heard my voice telling him and his classmates to dream big, do big, and never give up until they became big, and if any of them ever did give up they could always come back to me for hope and passion, because the world needed them and the gifts only they could develop and give to the world.

He is now an incredible poet.

More and more of us are feeling so stressed out by the new protocol by the stressed out administrators who stress us out that we forget why we do what we do and don't want to do it anymore.

And more and more of use are dropping out of teaching forever, wondering where we went wrong in our lives.

I came within one day from quitting teaching this year. I was still broken-hearted from a relationship that had ended months earlier, having lost my best friend and wondering where I had gone wrong.

And now I was teaching at a new school with even tougher requirements because it was a failing school. I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel confident. And I felt so stressed out in meetings that all I heard in my head was, "You can't do this anymore."

And I wondered what a grown man was doing teaching a bunch of kids who didn't do their homework, didn't behave, didn't care.

I felt like a loser wondering again where I had gone wrong.

Then I reached down, deep down, into the only thing I had. The only thing I was and the only thing I was ever good at. Love.

And I didn't quit.

I showed up one day at a time and gave all of me for just one more day at a time. I decided to live and love again for as much as I could again; one day at a time.

I say we don't drop out. Things are tough in teaching. They are overwhelming. They are hard.

2016-02-11

Today we will Follow these Higher-Level Thinkers to Become the Best Versions of Ourselves

Everyone but one has responded to my challenge of fighting with renewed vigor, and there's a good chance that the only one holding back may not be able to fight any higher or harder. Which is tough for me to accept because I like to think that we have no limitations other than what we give ourselves.

And in today's world of teaching, we have so many limitations of what we can do and how we are to do it that we as teachers, and in turn our students, can become overwhelmed and disheartened.

Figure out a way to put the things we love and that work for us into our lesson plan:

1. Foreign languages - So we wake up our brains right away and keep them firing, connecting, and thinking throughout the day!

2. Dickens' The Tale of Two Cities - So we can consciously choose to live in the state of mind city that is the best of times and not the worst of times, where we have everything before us instead of nothing before us!

3. Achilles and his powerful speech to his Myrmidons so we can fight for all that we could be instead of limping through this day as if we were nothing special and capable of doing nothing special with our lives!

4. Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 - So we CAN be compared to a summer's day and CAN become more lovely and more lasting, doing something so great with our lives that we grow in eternal lines to time and so long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives "us" and this gives life to "we"!

5. Poe's Dream Within a Dream ~ So we know we are Dreaming Big, Doing Big, and Becoming so Big that we know we are living more than just a dream within a dream!

6. Powerful thinkers of the ancient past like Solon of Athens, Cleisthenes, Themistocles, and Pericles; tthe founders, nurturers, protectors and defenders of demokratia ~ So that we may become powerful modern day thinkers and the founders, nurturers, protectors and defenders of the democracy inside of us, choosing to and becoming able to rule our own lives and not be ruled by others.

Today we will take this opportunity to figure out a way to include these into the plans we are already given to follow, conquer those basic learning standards, and follow these higher-level thinkers "beyond the beach" to become a version of ourselves that will last forever!

He has trusted me to allow me inside his head and together we have made his inside bigger than his current outside

We are figuratively building an Eiffel Tower inside his heart and head of bigger and bigger believing in himself and thinking for himself

His dream of himself is now way bigger than his current outer bigness

But his do big is becoming so big that his outer reality and ability is becoming bigger on a weekly basis

Not only does he know who Einstein and da Vinci are, but HOW they became big, and how HE can use and apply this knowledge of them to help himself become big, including speaking in their native language of German and Italian

While trying his Math case in front of the court, Attorney Darin, Esq. successfully discovered an error in his thinking (Marzano Element 18 ~ Helping students examine errors in reasoning).

Then he used his knowledge of Einstein, saying, "OK. Was weiß ich? What do I know?", then da Vinci, "Well, Cosa vedo? What do I see?.....I see that the words under the graph say, "Lengths of toy boats in inches.....so.....that means there aren't 4 boats that are one inch but 1 boat that is 4 inches."

In his exit reflection slip below, which I used my Native American necklace to cover his last name (and wear to remind me to live from my spirit and not my ego, that way I don't care when they "fail" and "make me look bad" but care that they learn from their failure and truly grow smarter and succeed in the future - 2morrow, next year, doesn't matter - just matters that they do eventually succeed)

.....when he says he loved me (writing "Mr. Store" for Stuart - were working on his spelling phonics :-p) for getting onto him it was because before he could verbalize his reasoning I kept turning over the timer he got for trying his case and saying,

"Please explain this point to me again......OK, I liked that thinking but I'm still unclear about what you mean by this point.....What do you mean by.......OK, to rest your case tell the court one more time what you did wrong and how you know u r right now?"

Today I will have all students who scored an A on last week's tests write on the back an idea they can imagine doing with their A knowledge, then folding it into a paper airplane and flying it as far across the room (or outside ~ even better ~ better n bigger fun - better use of Plato's knowledge that we learn more in a state of fun than we do in a lecture)

Their additional homework will be designing and developing that idea into a reality this week.

We'll call this the Einstein~Edison~Eiffel~E=mc2 Effect, using their dream big energy to do big with their brain matter and turn it into more at their own unique speed of light